Budgets are hard work

The key line from the president's State of the Union speech tonight that demonstrates just how far standards have fallen in management of the federal budget (emphasis mine):

"Every year of my presidency, we've reduced the growth of non-security discretionary spending, and last year you passed bills that cut this spending." -President Bush

That's a moutful, and it sounded like it when he uttered the line. It wasn't that long ago when we had a president who cut the deficit, balanced the budget, and actually ran a surplus. It required fiscal discipline, and a sane tax policy. The 1990s seem like a distant memory.